PRINCE EDDIE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4855, 22 January 1894, Page 2

PRINCE EDDIE.

• ! The Simple Story of a Short j Life. [FEOM OUR LONDON COEBESPONDENT.] London, Dec. 8. j The simple story of poor Prince Eddie's short life as told by Mr Vincent and his ex-tutor, Canon Dalton, leads one to the conclusion that he inherited his mother's gentle and lovable character rather than his father's somewhat self-indulgent tern- j perainent. Not that the Prince of Wales ! is painted in Mr Vincent's pages in aught but the most sympathetic colours. Both j he and the Princess appear to have been i always model parents. < It wa3, we are told, the custom of the , Princess of Wales to compose a litle verse for each of her Bons to say on their father's birthday, in celebration of the day. Here is euch a verse, which iB treasured by Mrs Blackburn, together with childish sketches and letters from the young princes and princesses. It is written in the baud of the Princess : — " Eddie's Verse fob Papa's Birthday. Nov. 9, 1869. Day of pleasure, Brightly dawning, Take the gif b On this sweet morning. Our best hopes And wishes blending. Must yield joy That's never ending." On the back of the same piece of paper is another verse, rather shorter, for Prince George. Perhaps this scene (says Mr Vincent), which we may easily conjure up in imagination— of the two little boys repeating their verses to their father on his birthday— gives the best possible idea of the Binipie, wholesome and affectionate atmosphere in which they were brought up. The fresh glimpseß which we are afforded into the life of the late Duke of Clarence show that as a boy both he and his younger and more robust brother were in no way coddled because they were princes. " Canon Dalton remembers now, when he sits in his library in the Cloisters at Windsor, calling up the memories of bygone days, with a pleasure which is darkened by sadness, that the young prince, although full of playful spirits, never for a moment resented the childish punishments which were inflicted upon him. The vory fact that such punishments were inflicted is in itself a proof of the wisdom shown by the Prince and Princesa of Wales as. parents, and lesda to mention of the fact that, in these supersensitive days, only the sons of men of high rank are subject to wholesome discipline. Thus a peer at Eton or at Winchester may be, and sometimes is, flogged with a severity which, if shown by a Board schoolmaster to an arfcisan*a son, would be followed by a scene in a metropolitan police court. It is not, of course, pretended, that severity was shown to the young princes ; but it is none the less the fact that they were not pampered, that they were punished in moderation when occasion required, and that their education was. a serious business." The Prince of Wales took a lively interest in the progress of the boys, and Mr Dalton on one occasion -scored a point on behalf of his pupils at the expense even of their Boyal father. The Prince of Walea having Baid regretfully that Prince Albert Victor did not advance eo quickly as he could wish, Mr Dalton observed that no less a personage than Ptince Albert Victor's father had, in years gone by, been so Blow to develop that his father had despaired, quite needlessly, as the event had shown, of his attaining cultivated manhood. By the testimony of his contemporaries at Cambridge, Prince Albert Victor " did his daily work regularly and conscientiously, as he did everything, and ehowed a constant desire to make use of the advantages which the University offered to him." Socially the Prince lived in two circles. He numbered among his acquaintances all the prominent members of the University. He wa3 a member of the A.D.C., and patronised its performances ; he was fond of attending as a silent member at the Cambridge Union whenever any of his friendß were speaking, and he. was a most constant listener at all University concerts. He also joined the Cambridge University Bifle Volunteers. Such was Prince Albert Victor's outer life ; his inner life was passed at first among the f rienda whom he had made at Sandringham, and later within a gradually widening circle of which those friends were the nucleus and the centre. "By universal consent this fellowship of kindred Bpirifcs was one of the most delightful ever known, and those who have met many of the fellowship sinc9 will not hesitate to say that it was an assembly of brilliant wits no less than of pleasant men." In athletics the Prince did not take a prominent part, yet, "like every other honest f reehman, he went down to the river during the first few weeks of his career at the university to be coached in the art of rowing in freßh water ; or, in other words, to unlearn all that he had learned in the Britannia and Bacchante." To the end of his short life the Prince took a keen interest in the performances of the light blue crew. Cricket and football the Prince did not play, but in the game of hookey ho took the keenest and moat active part. When 'the Prince joined the 10th Hussars, he stuck to his drill until he had thoroughly mastered it. "By his brother officers the Prince was greatly beloved for his kindly disposition, hiß unassuming modesty, his earnest simplicity of character. For display, tor ostentation, for flattery, which ia the most offensive form of insult, he had no inclination. It was his desire, on »and off duty, to live the same life aa his brother officers ; and bo we find him going out into society with them, hunting regularly, mounted to perfection and riding well, playing polo, j entering horses for the regimental steeplechases, visiting the neighbouring houses, and so forth." In his early childhood, Mr Vincent says, bhe Prince showed au essential trait of j character which never deserted him in after life. He vaa never known to bear a grudge, or to sulk, as children will when reproof or childish punishment had been \ administered. He never forgot the atten- t dant3 of his boyhood, either the humble ones he met in the nursery,, or the tutor who devoted the best years of hiß life to him and to his brother, or his friends at Sandringham, or his friends at Cambridge. En the midst of the State ceremonials j which came to him in later years, he was j in constant and familiar correspondence ( with the undergraduate friends whom he ! made at Cambridge. Yet he had a quiet , dignity o! manner, so clear, and yet so unaffected, that no man ever dreamed ol : taking a liberty with him. '